17 Sickles Worth
by fluffy-fuzzy-ears
Summary: Really short fluffy oneshot, wherein Draco takes advantage of a certain booth at a Ministry fundraiser.
1. Chapter 1

The booth had a large sign above it, in bold letters proclaiming "Get a kiss from HARRY POTTER for 1 sickle!"

"Really, Hermione, I think a kiss from me is worth more than that," Harry had joked, upon seeing the cost. Her only response had been to roll her eyes. "Make it five at least."

"We'll just see how it goes," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching.

The other members participating in the fund-raiser had chosen much more innocent endeavours like selling baked goods or artwork or other services that did not involve the meeting of body parts. At least Harry assumed they didn't. Hermione was staffing a booth for her latest campaign to promote rights for fairies. Harry thought this campaign, maybe, would be successful. It had a good acronym, anyway.

Even though Hermione had told him way back when in sixth year that he was a "fanciable enough bloke", he still didn't really see it. He had spent enough time looking at his reflection in the mirror to know that he had an unruly mop of jet black hair (girls like it messy, Hermione had quipped), his glasses were ugly and annoying (yes, but now that he'd replaced his unfashionable round ones with square lenses, it was much better, Hermione had told him), his face was too _long_ (okay, she said, now he was just being silly). Yes, he could admit that, since the war, he had filled out a bit, losing that malnourished and stunted look of his youth. Mostly he just thought people would pay for a kiss from the great _Harry Potter_, not Harry. She had just rolled her eyes and scoffed. Ron had had nothing to say on anything, his only reaction to look a bit uncomfortable.

"What, you don't want a kiss from me, Ron?" Harry had said in a mock pout. He laughed out loud when his friend turned red in the face and spluttered.

The booth had barely been active for five minutes before Harry had made twelve sickles, and kissed half the females in the Auror department. His face felt hot from the embarrassment (or maybe he was just sunburned). When Alice, an Auror easily twice Harry's age, had come up to the booth, Harry had been mortified.

She had slapped a sickle down in front of him, giving him a wink. "Hey Harry! Fancy a smooch?"

"Oh God," Harry mumbled, hands covering his face. Somewhere in the distance he heard Ron snigger and hated him slightly for it. _Oh I am so getting him back for this. Hermione too. This is all her fault._

Harry decided to go temporarily blind in his peripherals, ignoring the sniggers and darting glances of the people at the event. _If I see Rita Skeeter here I swear to God –_

"Don't keep a friend waiting, now Harry!" Alice quipped, snapping Harry back to reality.

Harry sighed and leaned across the little table, presenting his face to her. She smirked and gave him a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth, thankfully. She broke away and gave him another wink. "Thanks mate! Now, where's that husband of mine?" She flitted away, revealing the next person in line. Another lady, and very pretty, Harry could see. Smiling, Harry was just waving her forward when another person, definitely _not_ a lady, shot in front of her.

Well shit.

Shit shit shitty_ shit_.

Harry's stomach did a funny little turn and he cursed the wizard Gods or whoever the hell had been responsible for this. _Seriously._

"Potter," came the drawling voice.

"Hey!" the girl said, indignant.

"M-Malfoy!" Harry choked out, unfortunately drawing the attention of his immediate neighbours. "You – you can't just – butt in like that!"_ Damn it, you can't be here at ALL, you bloody wanker!_

Draco smirked and leaned one elbow on the table, meeting Harry's eyes. "Well I just did, so get over it." He turned to the affronted girl behind him and winked at her. "If the lady doesn't mind," he added, polite as he could.

The woman blushed, blinked with wide eyes and then shrugged. "I guess not, only if you get on with it."

Harry felt betrayed by this woman he didn't know the name of. "Well thanks a lot," he grumbled.

Draco laughed. "Oh I like her. Well Potter, best not to keep a costumer waiting, yes?"

"You are a _not_ a costumer," Harry said through gritted teeth. And damnit, the longer Malfoy stood at his booth, the more people were looking and now there was even a crowd gathering. He needed to get rid of the blonde man, before Skeeter arrived and took incriminating photographs.

Draco leaned in further, smirk growing wider, fluttering his eyelids in what he probably hoped was a seductive manner. Harry tried to tell himself it had no impact.

A few years back, the two alumni had awkwardly agreed to end their Hogwarts rivalry, calling a truce. For a while Harry had been relieved at not having to interact much with the potions-affiliated Auror. Their departments were completely different, and thus there was really no need for their paths to cross often. Despite all of this, the ex-Slytherin had somehow managed to track down Harry every other day, sometimes _every_ day, to spark a witty banter session that often left Harry fuming. Oh how Harry missed the days of a simple banter session with the man. These days, for the past month in fact, the annoying banter had turned into shameless flirting. Worse was that Harry had no idea if the blond man was serious; if he was serious and was actually attracted to Harry like that… well then Harry would actually maybe kind of sort of consider giving it a shot. The man was very fit, after all. But if all the flirting was simply another way for the Slytherin to one-up Harry then the Gryffindor would power on and never talk to the man again.

But now said man was here, at his stupid kissing booth, leaning all of his sexiness up in Harry's personal space, demanding a kiss. Harry would just have to keep himself from reacting. At all.

"How many kisses will a galleon buy me?" Draco mused aloud, eyebrow raised and smirk in place.

"Er, seventeen, obviously," Harry replied dryly.

"I'll chip in another galleon to see this!" The lady behind Draco chirped.

Harry leaned around Draco to glare at the woman. The few people in the queue behind her shouted their agreements, offering up sickles and knuts. Harry felt his face heat up, feeling embarrassed and betrayed by his fellow comrades.

"I'll chip a few knuts in," came a familiar voice from Harry's right.

"Oh no, not you too, Ron!" Harry groaned. His _best friend_, how could he?!

"Good show, Weasley!" Draco smiled.

Ron winked at Draco and Harry was forcefully reminded of how far their social dynamics had really come since their Hogwarts days. He would appreciate it all later, right now he was sticking to glaring heatedly at Ron.

"Sorry mate," Ron said, clapping Harry on the shoulder. In his blue eyes was the message "_You aren't fooling anyone. Just kiss the fool and you two can live happily ever after." _

And really, by waiting for so long and making such a scene about it all, Harry had really dug himself in deeper. There was now quite a sizeable crowd gathering at the HP Kissing booth, certainly some members of the press embedded within it.

"Seriously?" Harry muttered to Draco.

Draco's smirk blended into a real, genuine smile, one that Harry had never seen before, had never _felt_ before. That smile could break a heart. The blonde gave a small nod of his head, his eyes boring into Harry's.

Exhaling a shaky breath, Harry took off his glasses. He hadn't done that for any of the previous "costumers". If he was going to kiss his secret crush then by God he was going to do it properly and give the Wizarding World Press enough front page material to last a long time.

Harry breathed deeply and then leaned forward, closing the gap between their mouths. It was a tender kiss, Malfoy's lips warm and pliable beneath his. It was perfect, and ended far too soon.

Both men separated and, Harry's heart leapt into his stomach at the smile sitting on Draco's lips. This was no joke. Harry returned the smile, feeling like a sappy fool. He would have to buy Hermione a drink.


	2. Chapter 2

After the kissing booth incident, every day work in the Auror Department was torture for Harry Potter. Before, whenever Draco Malfoy had approached him with a glint in his eye and a smirk on his pretty mouth, Harry had been irritated and flustered. Now, however, was _much worse_. In every rare interaction the two men would have, Draco would drop not-so-subtle little hints that the only thing on his mind, when not pondering over potions of course, was shagging Harry's brains out. He would send graphic little animations to Harry's office, quite similar to the one Draco had sent to his desk back in third year folded up like a crane. Draco had since then much improved at drawing. Instead of rolling his eyes and frowning in annoyance at the depiction like he had in third year, Harry would now turn tomato red in the face and splutter while attempting to conceal the resulting arousal. Rather than Harry's likeness getting pelted in the head with a bludger, these animations were quite a bit more graphic, showing Harry's likeness graphically writhing around with Draco's likeness, doing… _thing_s.

"Eh…" The small sound of embarrassed disgust escaped Harry before he could stop it. His fingers clenched the paper in his hands, wide eyes staring at it in rapt attention, watching the two figures on the paper as the graphic animation looped.

"What? Oh God, he's sent you another one, hasn't he?" Ron entered the office and approached the desk. He chuckled at the embarrassed and flustered form of his friend. "Oh come on, mate, can't be that bad." Ron had since accepted that, though Draco Malfoy was perverted, and he was not afraid to show it at every available opportunity, he really did seem to genuinely care for his best friend, who had never been happier. Ron's reactions to the first few animated depictions had echoed Harry's present state. But at the tenth animation Ron had admitted to being impressed that the git could draw so well, and had then been purely amused at Harry's continued embarrassment.

"Erm, yes," Harry squeaked. Beneath the desk he crossed his legs, _tightly_, sincerely hoping Ron would not need him to get up anytime soon.

Ron rounded on the desk, coming to peer over Harry's shoulders. He snorted in amusement. "Quite the artist, isn't he?"

"Suppose so," Harry agreed. Though they made him terribly embarrassed, whenever Harry saw the little piece of folded paper soar onto his desk his heart jumped with happiness.

"You dork, why are you still so flustered? Haven't you two – y'know – _done _that yet?"

"M'not a dork. And so what if we have?"

"Ew. Please do _not_ divulge the details. I don't care _that_ much."

* * *

Harry and Draco had had a few dates, but, annoyingly, they had never enjoyed privacy for very long. The three times they had planned to go to the pub or a sit-down restaurant, Harry's friends would invite themselves along. Ron and Hermione had been with the first time, "accidentally" happening to be in the same place at the same time. Okay, fair enough – Harry had smiled and graciously invited them to sit at their table, ignoring the way Draco's nose had scrunched up in annoyance. But then the situation had repeated itself twice more, inexplicably at different venues each time, even after Harry had sworn to Draco that he'd not told anyone of their plans. Really, he wanted to be alone with Draco as much as Draco did.

"I think they're just paranoid I'm actually leading you on. Like this is some sort of _extremely intimate_ practical joke," Draco deadpanned, unimpressed. He smirked as he looked down at the key frame he was currently drawing. "Do you want shading on this one?"

"I don't think – I mean, maybe they're – what?" His face erupted in a blush when he studied what Draco was drawing – a crude representation of Draco sucking Harry off. "Um, sure, whatever you want. Anyways." Harry had started to defend his friends' honour, but really, every time they had all had an "accidental" double date, both Ron and Hermione had been acting a little suspiciously around Draco. Watching him with eyes a bit too narrow, that sort of thing. "I think they mean well. We just need to call them off on it."

"Maybe we should just snog until they get uncomfortable enough to leave. Or do this in front of them," he said, pointing at the animation. He was using a dark pencil to shade in Harry's hair.

Harry choked on his water. Draco patted him lightly on the back, looking far too amused.

"Of course, _you_ would most likely get too uncomfortable first, Harry my dear. You're adorably prudish. And after all, I am to be thankful for the both of them for setting up that kissing booth in the first place."

"I'm not _prudish._"

"Yes you are, dear."

"I just don't like – _parading_ it around in front of everyone," Harry said, biting his lip. Draco pouted, trying to infuse offense in his eyes, but still looking far too amused, the bastard.

Draco nudged the unfinished graphic drawing into Harry's view. "So, you _won't_ let me do this to you at the restaurant tomorrow night?"

Draco roared with laughter as Harry, red-faced and fuming, shoved the man away from his desk, biting out that _yes_ his drawing skills were very accurate and would he please piss off because he had work to do, dammnit.

* * *

"Dean, Seamus! I didn't know you were in town!" Harry beamed at his fellow alumni, genuinely pleased at their appearance. Beside him Draco huffed quietly and Harry nudged him in the ribs. The restaurant was slightly fancier than the ones they'd been to so far, an up-scale French cuisine venue. They had even made their first reservation together and everything.

The Irishman rose from their table to clasp at Harry's extended hand. "Harry! Blimey, it's been a while, yeah?"

Dean Thomas tipped his head in a nod. His eyes shifted to Draco and the smile faltered a bit. "Harry, Malfoy."

Harry and Draco sat down at the table, making their party four, waiting on two more. A few seconds later a posh young waitress arrived with two more menus and glasses of lemon water.

"Hermione and Ron will be a bit late," Seamus said lightly. He noticed Draco's slightly petulant expression and gave a sympathetic smile. "Sorry for barging in on your date, Harry. We're only in town for a week and though it'd be nice to catch up."

Waving his hand at his friends, Harry smiled. "It's okay, really. We're used to it."

"Hm?"

Draco huffed and fidgeted with his napkin. "They've been on every date we've had so far."

The Irishman laughed but looked aghast. "Shit, I'm sorry!"

Dean even looked sympathetic. "Yeah, not cool. We know how that is."

"They mean well," Harry offered, though a bit half-heartedly. And then what Dean had said really hit Harry. His eyebrows rose as he looked at each Seamus and Dean in turn, finally appreciating how closely they sat together, their general heightened comfort with each other. "Wait, are you two… together?"

Seamus shrugged, the happiness beaming from his eyes. Dean nodded and smiled at his partner, grabbing for his hand on the table to interlace their fingers. "Yeah. That's part of the reason why we moved to Ireland this year."

Harry gasped happily. "I'm – I'm really happy for you two! Congratulations!"

"I totally saw that coming," Draco drawled, attempting to appear uninterested.

"Oh come off it, no you did not."

The blond shrugged, raising an eyebrow. "If how those two interacted back in Hogwarts was any hint, then you shouldn't be surprised."

Dean and Seamus shared a little smile with each other, pleased to hear such words spoken about their bond.

"Cheers, Malfoy," Seamus said happily, raising his glass. "You two were actually our inspiration for making it official. Y'know, to the parents and all."

"Oh, really? How so?" Harry asked, heart fluttering in his chest. Beside him, Draco let his cautiously bored mask slip a bit, offering Harry a private little smile as their pinky fingers grazed against each other.

"The Kissing Booth, mate? It made front page for weeks? Classic," Seamus chuckled. "Way to keep true to Gryffindor courage."

"More like he crumbled at my Slytherin charms," Draco smirked. Eyes dancing with amusement, Draco pressed a light kiss to Harry's cheek, making it burn red.

Another few minutes of surprisingly light-hearted conversation passed, making Harry feel as if he were in a dream. Seamus and Dean hadn't interacted with Draco much at all since the war had ended three years past, only hearing of the Malfoy heir via the biased reporting of the media. It hadn't all been bad; Draco and his mother had genuinely been recovering their family's reputation from being dragged in the mud Lucius helped accumulate. It also helped that the man was now locked away in prison for the foreseeable future. The most recent boost to Malfoys' reputation had been the most potent of all; Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were now in an apparently healthy romantic relationship, so anyone with negative intentions towards the Malfoys would surely incur the wrath of The Saviour of the Wizarding World.

Hermione and Ron finally arrived just as the waitress was bringing them their drink orders. They both apologized for being late, their voices breathless and cheeks red from the brisk November wind. Ron's eyes lit up at seeing his former Gryffindor roommates and he and Dean immediately lapsed into a heated discussion on football (it had taken a lot of work on Dean's part but Ron could finally respect the Muggle game's popularity). Entrees were ordered soon after, and in general the atmosphere was amazingly peaceful. Better yet, no nosy reporters were trying to interrupt with silly interview questions about Harry's sanity in dating a Malfoy.

There was a natural lull in the conversation, and Harry noticed that Draco was fidgeting slightly. Harry would like to think that he was the only one who can read Draco's nervousness, because otherwise the man appeared calm and collected. His cool grey eyes darted to Dean a few times, and just when Harry was about to ask what's wrong, he cleared his throat slightly.

"Dean, do you still practice art?"

Dean turns away from Seamus, blinking up at Draco, caught a bit off-guard. "Er, yeah. Sometimes."

Seamus smirked. "Sometimes? Okay, he has a freelance illustration business in Dublin. He started it last year and he's already got twelve steady clients."

Hermione clapped a little bit, smiling in excitement. "Oh good for you, Dean! I'd always hoped you'd take that skill further."

"Thanks, Hermione. Why do you ask, Malfoy?"

_Oh no…_ thought Harry. Draco had that _look_ in his eye.

"Hm, I was thinking of maybe pursuing something similar, on the side of course." Draco ignored Harry's widening eyes boring into the side of his face.

"Draco are you serious –"

"Harry dear, I'm conversing with Mr Thomas. Don't be rude."

"But –"

"You draw, Malfoy?" Seamus seemed genuinely surprised.

Across the table, Ron met Harry's eyes. The red-head looked very much like he was trying to refrain from bursting out in laughter.

"What, you thought all I was good at is potions and being a minion of Darkness?"

Harry's eyes widened as Ron opened his mouth to contribute to the conversation. "Yeah he's actually not bad. I've seen some of his stuff."

"Really? Do you have anything on you now?" Dean asked, curious.

_God no, don't you dare!_ Harry groaned out loud, not being able to keep his face straight. Ron was quivering with laughter. Seamus and Hermione were watching the exchange, and their behaviour, frowning, clearly realizing they were out of the loop a bit.

"I'm afraid not. But I can certainly send you some samples. I mostly do short animations."

"Oh yes, I remember that one you did of Harry in third year," Hermione recalled with a frown. "It was quite rude."

"I can assure you, Ms Granger, my work has much improved, and while the muse is the same, the subject matter is _quite_ different." He smirked, letting that sink in a bit.

Harry fervently turned to his plate, furiously eating as a distraction from everyone and everything around him.

"Er, right," Dean muttered, blushing. He shifted in his seat, feeling around his jeans pocket for something. "Here's my card," he said, offering Malfoy his business card. "I might have some contacts in London with quite, er, diverse interests."

"Diverse? Interesting." Draco accepted the card and stored it safely in his pocket.

"Alright, did Malfoy just agree to draw and sell porno?" Seamus said, wide-eyed.

Draco sighed dramatically. "Porn? So uncouth."

"Well that's what it's called!"

"I prefer tasteful nudity."

"And you said they're animations!"

"Yeah, how do you make those, by the way?" Asked Dean, ignoring his spluttering boyfriend. "I only do static illustrations, but I've been thinking about branching out a bit."

"I'll not divulge trade secrets to create competition for myself, Mr Thomas. You understand."

Dean snorted. "Trust me, Malfoy, I'm not interested in drawing that kind of art."

Their conversation morphed into a trade complicated sounding art techniques, letting the other dinner guests turn to each other. Mostly it was to make fun of Harry, who was still red in the face.

"Don't worry mate, I'm almost positive he won't sell his drawings of you. Probably." Ron laughed as Harry glared at him, lips pursed. "Though they do display his skills quite nicely." Ron blushed as Hermione gasped at him. "Wait – no, that came out wrong! I meant his _art_ skills, not – not his – you know – with Harry!"

Now that Ron was embarrassed, it was Harry's turn to laugh.

"That's nice," Hermione commented lightly, smiling at her friend.

"What's nice?"

"The sound of your laugh. We get to hear it more and more now."

"Geez Hermione, quit being such a sap," Ron said, though his eyes shined with warmth at her. It was true; Harry had never been happier, and it was all because of Malfoy. Ron finally stopped trying to question the logic behind that reality.

Harry squirmed in his seat, dipping his head to try and conceal his smile. "Yeah, I guess. Thanks." He felt a small hand squeeze his shoulder gently. He looked up and met Hermione's eyes, seeing a light layer of concern.

"He makes you happy, yes?"

Harry sighed and covered her hand on his shoulder. He tried to put as much sincerity in his expression as possible, needing her to understand that his relationship with Draco wasn't just something silly and spur of the moment, that it wasn't something conjured from one kiss in a very public setting. "Yes, Hermione. Amazing and impossible as it may seem, we are happy. I'm happy. It's… it's great."

"See, 'Mione? I told you," Ron said softly.

Hermione bit her lip and looked at Harry with guilt in her eyes. "It's just that – oh Harry, Ron and I-" Ron scoffed and Hermione sighed – "Okay, _I_ was a bit concerned that we had, I don't know, pushed you into something you weren't ready for, and that it was all a bit thin. I have to confess that we've been double-dating with you two on purpose-"

"Every time. Yes. We'd noticed."

Hermione blushed clasped her hands together in a nervous gesture. "Oh. Well then."

"Sorry 'bout that, mate. I didn't really want to gate crash all of your dates, but she seemed to think it was a good idea."

"Really, that you had such _little_ faith in us is in bad character, Weasley," Draco chimed in, glaring across the table at Ron.

"Excuse me? _Bad character?_ Listen to me, you-"

"Ron." Harry glared hard at Ron, who shut his mouth instantly, teeth clanking audibly. "Let's not. Really."

There was a bit of a tense silence, broken eventually by Seamus. "Right, who wants dessert?"

"Me," quipped Draco, sounding a bit impatient. He immediately followed his statement by pressing a solid kiss to Harry's lips, lingering for an effective few seconds, then pulling back. The occupants of their table, and the adjacent tables, were sitting in a bit of shocked silence. He gazed at them all with fierce eyes before speaking. "Let me make one thing quite plain. Even if none of you believe it, I care quite deeply for Harry here, and even more unbelievably, he seems to reciprocate. I would therefore _greatly appreciate_ some level of independence in developing our relationship. Does anyone have a problem with this?"

No one said anything. After a moment Harry cleared his throat and all eyes shot to him.

"What he said," he mumbled, face now stuck in a permanent blush.

A bubble of laughter tumbled from Hermione and the severe silence was broken. "That was so sweet!" Her few claps were echoed by other patrons of the restaurant.

Ron reached over and actually clapped Draco on the back, honest respect in his eyes. "Got you loud and clear, mate."

Draco seemed a bit affronted by Ron, his smile coming out in more of a grimace. "Good."

"So does this mean no more triple dates?" Seamus asked, his eyes laughing.

"No double dates, no triple dates."

"Well, we can still have them _eventually_, we just –"

"For God's sakes Harry, stop cock-blocking your boyfriend!"

"Seamus! I'm – I'm not – that's not even-"

"You'd think with a bit of shagging, Harry's vocabulary would have expanded a bit."

"Ron! Leave him be."

"I'm just sayin'."

"Draco, maybe you can break Harry out of his shell by making him draw some frames of your animations?"

Draco snorted. "Who needs drawing when we could actually _do_ what the drawings depict?"

"Seamus! Dessert?" Harry called desperately, brandishing the menu.

The Irish boy laughed, deciding to rescue his friend. "Sure thing. My treat."

Draco leaned over to Harry, lips grazing his ear. "Problem solved." He kissed Harry's ear lobe then pulled away, honestly not wishing to make his partner suffer any more embarrassment.

Harry bit his lip, seemed conflicted for a second, then nodded his head slightly. He grabbed Draco's chin in his hand and pressed a kiss to the man's lips, pulling back to a look of pleased surprise.


End file.
